Smelled diesel while driving a couple of times in traffic, thought it was heavy trucks in front of me. Later again near home, no traffic.

Expected to find a weeping return line or such, instead there's a big oil residue stain all around the vent on the valve cover. Flex elbow looks to be in one piece, still has the original spring clamp at the bottom.

This car has 100k or so, with about zero blowby. Is it just the clamp getting tired or could something be causing some intermittent overpressure?

The oil residue wasn't there last weekend, but it's not happening constantly as by the time I got home it was dry on the v/cover.

I used to see this as a fact of life on my 250k mile SD but was surprised to see it on this car.

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Mac
2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td
Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d

“Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22